Read "Edging Away from Cruel Eggs – Part 3: Strange Coop-Fellows"On Election Day, 2016 a fantastic new law was approved by voters and practically nobody noticed! Question 3 was approved by 78% of Massachusetts voters--when enacted it will “prohibit any farm owner or operator from
knowingly confining any breeding pig, calf raised for veal, or egg-laying hen
in a way that prevents the animal from lying down, standing up, fully extending
its limbs, or turning around freely.”
With that vote, which was worded very much like California’s Proposition 2, the citizens of Massachusetts mandated that certain cruel animal husbandry
practices, including battery cages for laying hens, will no longer be
allowed. The measure also bans the
sale in Massachusetts of cruelly produced eggs and meat from other states. The Massachusetts law will go into effect in
2022 and prior to that it will no doubt be challenged just as thoroughly as was
the California law.

In
parts One,
Two
and Three
of “Edging Away from Cruel Eggs” I talked about the inherent cruelty of battery
cages for laying hens, how California voters decided to ban them, and how that
ban was subjected to numerous legal challenges by the egg lobby and other
interests.

The final challenge hanging
over the California law was filed in 2014.
The plaintiffs were the states of Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Kentucky, represented by
their attorneys general, and Iowa, represented by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. In their challenge, they argued that the
California law protecting hens was unconstitutional because in stipulating that
cruelly produced eggs from other states could not be sold in California, it
interfered with interstate commerce and would unjustly harm the citizens of
those states—each of the plaintiff states was an agricultural state that
produced lots of eggs.

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while know about Bailey, my friend, companion, and guardian of the Hipster Hens. I'm sorry to report that Bailey passed away this morning due to a rapidly growing abdominal tumor. She had a good and long life - sixteen years old is pretty phenomenal for a Labrador retriever. And she certainly enriched my life - I'll miss her a lot. Bailey is unique in that she chose us to be her family rather than us choosing her to be our dog. I wrote a post about that which I'm linking here if you would like to take a look. My wife Kathy recently wrote a booklet about Bailey's life that I think makes an excellent pictorial epitaph, and I'm sharing it here.

Meet
Marissa the Cream Legbar. I captured this picture of Marissa in August—about
the time she started laying eggs. Since then, Marissa has laid a pretty little
blue-green pullet egg almost every day, and each egg is incrementally larger
than the previous one. My older hens have scaled waaay back on egg production
lately, since they’ve started their fall molt. So many days the four eggs I get
from my four young Legbar hens outnumber the eggs I get from the rest of the
flock!

Here's one more picture of
Marissa. This is a picture of Marissa as a teenager - taken in late May.

Here's another picture of Marissa the Cream Legbar back in late April when she was a mere three weeks old and had just grown her first set of feathers.

Meet Mary, the diminutive,
free-spirited, golden Campine hen. Mary is always the first chicken out of the
coop in the morning when the doors swing open. She would much rather be
free-ranging outdoors than cooped up in the coop. I think there’s more wild
jungle fowl blood flowing through Mary’s veins than in my other chickens. She’s
definitely not one of those chickens that tolerates being picked up and
cuddled. So I give her as much freedom as I can give a domestic chicken and in
return she gives me an ample supply of those nice little white eggs.

One more picture of Mary the
Campine. This is her baby picture from the spring of 2013.

Here's an August picture of
Nicky the pretty Cream Legbar pullet. Nicky's one of the four Legbar babies who
hatched this past spring. All four Legbars are a little skittish and
standoffish - maybe because they had a real hen for a mom and imprinted on her
rather than being raised under heat lamps and imprinting on me. They are all
slowly becoming tamer and less nervous around me and Nicky is the most social.
She will actually stand on my lap and eat treats out of my hand now. Soon as
the treats are gone, though, so is she!

Here's another pic of Nicky -
shot at the same time as last week’s picture. In this shot she's doing her
"fierce predator" routine--silently working her way through the
foliage & preying on unsuspecting bugs and worms.

One final picture of Nicky the
Legbar Chicky! This was shot in May when Nicky was about five weeks old. A
teenager!

Meet Bailey, the sweet
sixteen-year-old Labrador retriever. Oh, wait! Bailey appears to be a
non-chicken! Yup - she is not a chicken, but it's high time she got her picture
posted considering her status as the Hipster Hen Chicken Ranch Official Dog.
I've mentioned Bailey in a couple posts, and featured her fascinating
back-story in “A Dog
Story.”

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Whew! I think that pretty much covers it!

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Starting November 17, 2016, an advertising program Google Adsense began to run on my blog. Your clicks on the ads shown on the blog don’t cost you anything but may result in a small commission for Randy’s Chicken Blog. While Google has guaranteed that the ads placed on my site will be relevant, I don’t have a great deal of control over which ads are displayed. I’ll do my best to block any content that goes against my values or that I believe to be questionable.

On November 27, 2016, Randy’s Chicken Blog became a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. If you click on a sponsored Amazon link and make a purchase Randy’s Chicken Blog may receive a small commission. Again, this costs you nothing, but it allows me and the Hipster Hens a little pocket change.

Mission Statement

Hi! I’m Randy and this is my chicken blog. I write it, edit it, take the pictures, feed the chickens, hug the chickens, etc. I blog because a few years ago, I got these chickens…I had no idea when I got my first chickens that I would get attached to them and become this sentimental, crazy old chicken guy. I had no idea that each chicken would have its own personality, that chickens had such a huge range of vocalizations that they literally “talk” to each other, that they have this amazing, intricate social structure, or that there would be so much drama in the coop—love, conflict, friendship, sex, motherhood, anxiety—a virtual soap opera playing out before my eyes every day.

So I write these little vignettes about my birds that are mostly whimsical but also mostly true. In the process of telling my stories I also pass along a variety of views and opinions which are completely my own. Please also bear in mind that the information I share regarding my care of my chickens has come from my experience caring for my flock. I’m not a veterinarian and I have had no formal education in any kind of chickenology.

There are a few facts that I hope to get across to anybody who regularly reads my blog:

1.My chickens are really cool.

2.All chickens are really cool.

3.The majority of chickens being raised for meat or egg production, in spite of their inherent coolness, are treated cruelly. You can help make changes by your purchasing habits. Educate yourself! Read labels! Check company websites!